David Chase Goes Back to the Mattresses

I’m usually hesitant to link to Time Inc. sister sites because it looks like shameless corporate whoring. And yet it never manages to do anything for the share price. But I think you’ll be interested in this. In an excerpt from an upcoming book, David Chase talks to Entertainment Weekly about That Last Scene:

There are no esoteric clues in there. No Da Vinci Code. Everything that pertains to that episode was in that episode. And it was in the episode before that and the one before that and seasons before this one and so on. There had been indications of what the end is like. Remember when Jerry Toricano was killed? Silvio was not aware that the gun had been fired until after Jerry was on his way down to the floor. That’s the way things happen: It’s already going on by the time you even notice it.

Are you saying…?

I’m not saying anything. And I’m not trying to be coy. It’s just that I think that to explain it would diminish it.

What do I think about that? That maybe David Chase should just stop talking about The Sopranos. “I’m not trying to be coy”: of course not! At this point, the relationship between him and some fans–some–seems like a bad marriage. On the one hand, his annoyance at the complaints seems overwrought: “It seemed that those people were just looking for an excuse to be pissed off. There was a war going on that week and attempted terror attacks in London. But these people were talking about onion rings.” You really want to complain about people caring too much about your show? High-class problem to have.

Then again, I’d probably feel the same way if I were him and following the discussion after the finale. People have a right not to like it, but a lot of the complaints were to the effect that Chase somehow betrayed the show. Which is ridiculous: whatever else you want to say about the finale, its spirit–the bathos of the family get-together, the subverting of TV expectations–was Chase through and through. Maybe it turns out you don’t like Chase’s art as much as you once thought you did. But isn’t it just possible that he understands his own show better than you do?